Equitable Bank renews $400 million secured backstop

Equitable Bank renews $400 million secured backstop

Equitable Group, the parent of Equitable Bank, has signed a new liquidity backstop agreement with several major Canadian lenders including TD, CIBC, BMO, National Bank, and Scotiabank.

The $400 million facility replaces a more expensive one that is expiring and gives Equitable customers reassurance that it has the funding to protect their deposits if there were to be funding market disruption.

"It's evident from the tremendous growth in all of our sources of deposits, including deposits with EQ Bank, Canada's leading digital bank, that funding markets have stabilized and the measures we've taken to diversify the channels we use to reach and serve Canadians have increased the strength and resiliency of our franchise," said Andrew Moor, President and Chief Executive Officer. "At the same time, reinforcing our operating model with a low-cost backstop – particularly with the support of 5 major Canadian banks – provides assurance that we can safeguard our deposits even in the highly unlikely event of another funding market disruption."

Equitable did not draw on the previous facility and has grown its deposits base by 47% since the first quarter of 2017 to a total of $14.6 billion.